This edition of “Talk Like A Gamer”, the first at it’s new home, will focus on the terms “buff” and “nerf”.

A “buff” is any change to something that makes that thing more powerful. A buff can be something that makes it more powerful only temporarily, or can be a more lasting change.

Two examples of short term buffs are “Power Word: Fortitude” from the World of Warcraft, which increases a players maximum health, and the “Starman” from Super Mario Brothers, which makes your character invincible for several seconds.

A lasting buff might be adding more power-ups to a certain section of the game.

A buff, however, doesn’t necessarily make the game easier for the player. A buff might also come in the form of changing the game, for example, to make a boss more difficult to defeat.

The opposite of a buff depends upon the duration of the change. A change that temporarily reduces the power of something is called a “debuff”. An example of this would be getting poisoned or blinded.

If the change reduces the strength of something from that point on, rather than calling it a “debuff”, it’s referred to as a “nerf”. The term originates from the Nerf toys in which items, such as a bat, are padded so that they won’t be able to hurt others.

A nerf might be a change that makes a monster weaker, and, therefore, easier to defeat. It could, however, be a change that removes power-ups from some area of the game, or even a change to the character that prevents it from doing something it used to be able to do.

Understandable? Try out these sample phrases, substituting the either buffed, nerfed or debuffed into the blank. Ready? Ah, and here’s a hint, each term will only be used once!

1. Did you see how badly they ____ rangers recently? I think I’d do more damage using my arrows as daggers at this point.
2. In the middle of that fight, the boss ____ the heck out of me. I didn’t have a chance.
3. Awesome! They ____ the heck out of this zone! Perhaps I’ll finally get that drop I’ve been looking for.

Did you say “nerfed”, “debuffed” and “buffed”, in that order?

Of course there are many real-life situations where these terms can be used!

• Cha-ching! Check it out, guys, my paycheck finally got a nice little buff.
• Feakin’ IT department just nerfed my computer again. I’m lucky it still boots at this point.

Try to think of some more uses for these words, in particular “buff” and “nerf”. As always, the only way to really increase your vocabulary is to incorporate these words into your daily speech, so try to use them as often as possible over the next week, and soon enough you’ll be able to Talk Like A Gamer.

If you liked that, try...

1. Talk Like a Gamer: Win & Love
2. Talk Like a Gamer: Greater Than
3. Big Mean Flash Gamer reviews Jump Gear
4. Can We Talk?
5. Big Mean Flash Gamer reviews Nuclear Fart Bear

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